Clinic to employ people with mental illness

Far west residents who have recovered from a mental illness could find work at a new mental health facility due to open in Broken Hill next year.

A community forum last night was told the 10 bed sub-acute service is expected to open in Thomas Street in February.

Manager Michelle Maitland says she is keen to hire two locals who have gone through a mental illness to work as peer support workers.

She says there is no minimum qualification required, and they will be offered training and support.

"We want people to use their experience of recovery, not their experience of illness, so we don't expect people to relive and go through their traumatic experiences of being unwell," she said.

"We don't think it's helpful for other people, and it's not helpful for them."

Ms Maitland says mental health consumers want to be involved in how healthcare is delivered.

"It's also about, I suppose as a political movement, showing that people can take control back," she said.

"You have to understand, people who have a mental illness, their control over their lives is taken away in a whole heap of ways, shapes and forms, in some ways by their illness but then also by being hospitalised against their will, a whole heap of things.

"So being able to work as a peer, to be able to use your experience positively is a really important thing for people with a lived experience of recovery."

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